Archive for the ‘Scott Tiemann’ tag

Before November of 2008, the whereabouts of only one of the six “production” Super Duty Pontiac Tempest Le Mans coupes was known. Then in a sequence of events that caught the attention of the collector-car world, another one appeared, with its seller initially oblivious to its importance and rarity; he soon learned what made his car special as bidding on the dilapidated coupe skyrocketed. Now restored, that same Super Duty Le Mans will head to auction again in January.

During the height of the lightweight era on American drag strips, and shortly before GM’s corporate-wide ban on racing, Pontiac tried several tactics to best the competition. Some of its full-size cars destined for the dragstrip benefited from lighter aluminum parts, and a handful of those cars – the famed Swiss cheese cars – had holes drilled in their frame rails for further weight reduction. With the 326-cu.in. Pontiac V-8 finally available in the compact Tempest in 1963, Pontiac’s engineers then decided to fit the Super Duty 421-cu.in. V-8 from the full-size cars into the Tempest, taking extensive measures to adapt the dual-quad, underrated-at-405hp Super Duty engine to the Tempest’s “rope-drive” rear-transaxle chassis. What resulted was the Powershift four-speed semi-automatic transaxle unique to the six Le Mans coupes and six Tempest station wagons built to compete in the NHRA’s A/FX class, along with 12-second timeslips and class wins across the country.

This particular Le Mans, delivered to Stan Long Pontiac in Detroit, made the rounds with Stan Antlocer as hotshoe. Not long afterward, Antlocer removed the Powershift transaxle and installed a three-speed manual transmission and 4.30-geared solid rear axle from an earlier full-size Pontiac, along with clear plastic side and rear windows. He then convinced the NHRA of its legality, resulting in timeslips of 11.93 seconds at 123.95 MPH along with an A/FX record and the title of World’s Fastest Tempest. What happened to it after Antlocer finished racing it, nobody seems to know. The entire aluminum front clip appeared at a Detroit-area swap meet years later, but the rest of the car didn’t show up until 2008, when it emerged – crusty, sans drivetrain, and fitted with a steel front clip – from a garage in Harrison, Michigan. Its VIN – 263P76752 – along with the faded lettering on its sides and roof and the plastic windows still with the car verified it as the Stan Long Le Mans. It sold a week later for $226,000.

Scott Tiemann of Supercar Specialties in Portland, Michigan – no stranger to these cars after restoring the Union Park Super Duty Tempest station wagon – was immediately tasked by the car’s new owner with its restoration. Though an attempt was made to reunite the car with its original front clip, Tiemann said a price couldn’t be agreed on, so the new owner had Randy Ferguson of Ferguson Coachbuilding hammer out an all-new aluminum front clip from scratch. The only other original Super Duty parts remaining with the car were the finned aluminum front drums, side and rear glass, clear plastic windshield, headers and exhaust. Tiemann said that Antlocer had actually devised the solid-axle swap so that it mostly bolted into place, making it simple(ish) to restore the car to its factory-delivered state, but the lack of an available Powershift transaxle led to the decision to restore the car to Antlocer’s solid-axle configuration. Coincidentally, the new owner already had a Doug Hughes-built Super Duty 421 intended for a full-size Pontiac, but elected to install it in the Le Mans instead.

Tiemann wrapped up the restoration of the Le Mans in time for it to appear at the 2010 Concours d’Elegance of America at Meadow Brook and – aside from an appearance at the Pontiac Nationals later that year – said he believes it hasn’t been shown since. The last time a Super Duty Le Mans came up for auction, the Wynn Engineering Le Mans campaigned by Roger Schmidt and George DeLorean sold out of Dana Mecum’s collection for $445,000 in 2010 at Mecum’s Indianapolis event.

The Stan Long Pontiac Super Duty Le Mans will cross the block at Mecum’s Kissimmee auction, which will take place January 18-27. For more information, visit Mecum.com.

UPDATE: Heard today from the owner of the Le Mans, John Riconda. He wanted to clarify that he did indeed have a Powershift transaxle that he said could have been restored to use in the Le Mans, but he made the decision to restore it to the solid-axle version because that is the more successful and famous configuration of the car. That Powershift transaxle will not be included in the sale, but he will give the buyer of the car the option of buying the transaxle.

As for how Antlocer convinced the NHRA of the car’s legality after its conversion, Riconda said that Pontiac actually assigned part numbers for the parts that Antlocer used.

UPDATE (27.January 2013): The Le Mans failed to sell after bidding up to $325,000.

Worldwide Auctioneers’ 10th annual Classics at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey, is set for this Friday evening, and as usual, the auction house has a diverse lineup ready to cross the block.

Always on the hunt for talent to showcase in Hemmings Muscle Machines’ Auction News column, I stumbled across this cool 1961 Pontiac Safari wagon drag car that seems to have spent more time looking for a new home than racing in recent years.

The Pontiac is said to have set and held five national records in NHRA H Stock Automatic and I Stock Automatic classes and was, according to the seller, featured on the cover of Super Stock and Drag Illustrated Magazine in 1969. The engine is a 468-cu.in. Pontiac built by Scott Tiemann of Supercar Specialties in Portland, Michigan, and the car has 4.88:1 gears as well as a line lock, though the seller says it can be street legal.

This cool-looking wagon is being sold at no reserve, so it’s going to be interesting to see what someone is willing to pay for it this time.

Going through my coverage of RM’s McMullen auction, I realize I’ll only have space to discuss one of the two Trans Am Kammbacks that John McMullen sold last weekend.

While most people have seen the second-generation Type K in magazines and books, few people realize Pontiac tried the same thing in 1985 with a third-gen Firebird Trans Am. According to the auction description, GM had scrapped plans to offer Kammback body styles on the F-bodies in 1970, but the idea hung around GM’s Tech Center and culminated in two third-gen Kammbacks, using a squared-off hatch in place of the fastback hatch. This particular car remained with GM until 1998, when McMullen – a Pontiac dealer – came across it and bought it for his own collection.

The Kammback has the 5.0L H.O. V-8 and (according to the auction description) a four-speed manual transmission. Though it showed 36,212 miles on the odometer, Scott Tiemann had worked his magic and restored it to showroom condition. That is, had it ever been in a showroom. We rated its condition at #1 and watched it sell for $66,000.